As a physician, Dr. Ben Carson knew the right prescriptions to give to his neurosurgery patients. But as the newly confirmed secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, will he be able to provide the right prescription for HUD?

The wrong one is cutting HUD’s budget by a staggering $6 billion (down 13.2 percent from last year), as proposed by the new budget from the Trump administration.

As a physician, I know that stable, affordable homes are as necessary as medicines, a good diet, and exercise to help people achieve good health. HUD, as the primary federal agency charged with alleviating poverty and ensuring that America’s families, seniors, veterans, and people with special needs have access to healthy homes they can afford, needs an injection of resources, not a withdrawal of them.